“Not a half-bad celebration, here,” Peterson said with a grin.
It went on late into the night.
Thus, after some six or seven months, and fully a quarter of a year after the royal wedding, the entire staff of the New IPD Headquarters was declared loyal. Several small enclaves of ‘oldies’ were discovered and eliminated from IPD employ, though in as far as they could tell, no one else had any plans to start a conspiracy to return the IPD to its old ways, or otherwise cause trouble. They simply were more in it for themselves than they were for the good of the people, and were prone to taking bribes, extorting, or otherwise lining their own pockets.
Meanwhile, after considerable discussion within the ‘showing respect to the Director’ working group, and back and forth with that Director, it was finally decided that a simple, informal tap of the right index finger to the temple would be a sufficient indicator of respect, on the rare occasion when it might be needed.
Further, the requests coming from the force on what should be included in the new Headquarters building had been weeded through and the plans finalized.
So by the time Nick and Cally approached their first wedding anniversary, not only was the Headquarters staff clean, but the foundation of the new building had been installed and the first large masonry levels laid. The rest of the structure would go up quickly.
For their first anniversary, the Ashtons headed out of the city and some three hundred miles inland, to the Altay Mountains, where they rented a small chalet in a resort town for a long weekend. They whiled away the time walking through alpine meadows filled with wildflowers, picnicking in scenic vista areas, and even going above the snowline for some off-season skiing.
One night after lovemaking, as they lay in bed, Cally turned to Nick.
“Um, honey?”
“Yeah, Cal? Something on your mind?”
“A little, yeah. Something we’ve really never talked about before, but probably should have.”
“What would that be?”
“Kids.”
Nick silenced for a long moment, staring at his wife in the dim lighting.
“Cal… are you saying you’re…?”
“No, silly,” she said with a grin. “The nanites take care of that. I have to tell ‘em to stop, first.”
“Oh. Then what…?” he asked, confused.
“Do you like kids? Do you want kids?”
“I like kids, sure, I think,” he decided. “I haven’t been around any in a long time, really. I did some babysitting as a teenager, to save up money for the Police Academy, and I enjoyed that; I thought most of the kids were really cute. As for wanting ‘em… I dunno. I never really thought about it, to be honest. If you’re the mom, probably.”
“Any time soon?”
“I guess we can’t wait too awfully long, or we’ll be too old.”
“Right…”
“So… yeah, I guess we can look at having a child or two. If you want to, too.”
“YAY!”
Cally flung her arms around him and kissed him breathless.
“I take it, that’s a yes?” he asked, when she let him come up for air.
“Yes!”
“Well, let’s get busy, then,” he said, pulling her close once more.
Addition
By the time the New Headquarters building was being fitted out and trimmed inside, the Ashtons had a little announcement to make. So first, they visited Cally’s parents in VR.
“Hey, Mom an’ Dad,” she said, as the couple arrived in the simulation of her parents’ home.
“Hi, honey,” Laura Ames, Cally’s mother, greeted her. Her avatar moved to Cally’s, and they embraced.
“There’s our kids! Good to see you two!” Alexandre Ames, Cally’s father, said, following Laura. When they’d both hugged Cally, they turned to Nick and embraced him as well.
“Now, what’s this important news you had to tell us?” Laura wondered, gesturing to the sofa, as she and Alexandre took the armchairs opposite. “Has one of you been promoted to inspector? Is Nick officially the permanent head of the detectives for the IPD?”
“No, no, nothing like that,” Nick said, waving a dismissive hand. “I’ll be as surprised as anybody if they make me permanent head.”
“I wouldn’t,” Cally staunchly averred. “I still think you’re gonna end up doing that, if for no other reason that you’ve been in that position – what? Eight, nine months already? Closing on a year?”
“About a month short of being a year,” Nick said quietly. “What I’m really expecting to happen, though, given how well he’s doing, is either Peabody is gonna make detective soon, and with his experience, Lee will move him into the slot, or he’ll score somebody from one of the sector departments to transfer in and take over.”
“That’s not very fair to you,” Alexandre decided. “You put it all together, and some other bloke waltzes in and takes over?”
“No, it’s okay, because I’ve always known it would be that way,” Nick said. “Lee Carter and Maia Peterson are about the closest I have to parental figures any more, and Lee’s always been straight with me. I had no illusions coming in that this would be permanent. And I don’t really think I want it to be. I like doing field investigations more than paperwork in an office.”
“Hey, Maia does both,” Cally pointed out. “She’s only not doing it so much now on account of, as she puts it, ‘not being young enough to keep up with you guys,’ meaning us in The Team.”
“Well, there is that,” Laura said, crossing her eyes, and they all laughed. “So what is this news? Tell me, tell me!”
Cally elbowed Nick.
“Oh!” he said, then, “Well, um, we, I mean Cally and I…”
“Honey, spit it out!” she told him.
“You spit it out! They’re your parents, honey!”
“Okay! We’re gonna have a baby!” Cally announced.
A shocked Laura clapped her hands and squealed in delight, and Alexandre made a
